Tag Archives: Medicaid cuts

Physicians in Louisiana may find themselves holding the short end of the stick very soon, as the state struggles to figure out how to make up a sudden $859 million shortfall in Medicaid funding.

And it comes at a time when the state’s Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, has said that he will not take any additional federal money to expand the Medicaid program in 2014, as offered under the Affordable Care Act. He also said he would not accept federal funds to set up health insurance exchanges under the law.

If any hospital or physician wanted to know what it would feel like to go without that federal money, they now have their chance. The $859 million hole is the result of a reduction in the federal matching rate that Congress approved as part of the transportation bill that was signed by President Obama on July 6.

The provision affects only Louisiana. After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the state received hundreds of millions in aid. But there was no adjustment at that time in the federal Medicaid matching rate. So Louisiana’s Medicaid program was the recipient of millions of dollars more than what it was due. (For more on this byzantine situation, see the New Orleans Times-Picayune’s story here.)

Congress fixed that error in the transportation and student loan bill by dropping the state’s current match rate. But Gov. Jindal, in creating and finalizing his fiscal 2013 budget, was, ironically, depending on that federal money.

On July 13, his administration announced cuts to make up the shortfall. The decrease in the federal matching rate meant that the state had to come up with $287 million in cuts on its own; the rest of the $859 million will come from reductions in pay from the federal government.

According to the state Dept. of Health and Human Services, $518 million will come out of the pockets of physicians and hospitals. The state already had announced an across-the-board almost 4% cut in Medicaid provider rates for fiscal 2013.

Under the latest cuts, the Louisiana State University system is taking the biggest hit: $329 million, or a quarter of its budget, according to news reports. LSU is one of the biggest charity care providers in the state. Interestingly, DHHS commented in its press release that it “does not anticipate this reduction of [disproportionate share hospitals] and Medicaid payments to affect Medicaid recipients’ access to hospital care.”

Among the other programs absorbing blows: the Greater New Orleans Community Health Connection (GNOCHC), a pilot that expanded health coverage to uninsured adults in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Another program that provided family planning services to low-income women will have its qualifying income limit reduced from 200% to 133% of the Federal Poverty Level.

The state is also tightening its review of eligibility for all Medicaid recipients.

After the cuts were announced, the Louisiana Hospital Association said in a statement that, the total elimination of DSH payments to rural hospitals “will be critical and will lead to reductions in services and possible hospital closures.” That in turn will leave ” gaps in healthcare delivery for patients in rural areas, as well as economic losses to those communities,” said LHA.

With hospitals across the state possibly delivering less care, it seems likely that physicians could expect to see more pressure on their practices.

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